Situation: Dire (A Poem)

Note to readers: It seems like every conversation with friends for the last several months has quickly devolved into endless rehashing of the litany of really bad problems assailing our world these days. It does seem kinda bleak. But, at the same time, it seems to me it ain't necessarily so. I mean, it's been bleak before. So, in the spirit of Leonard Cohen's great song of wry, sardonic cynicism, Everybody Knows, I composed my own ironic-yet-not-ironic ditty.

SITUATION: DIRE

We are so fucked.
No, let me restate that.
The hounds of madness
Are roaming freely
And they are hungry.
No, let’s try again.
Orwell didn’t see this coming.
Okay, but not quite.
Imminent disaster’s
A multiple choice question
With an all of the above option.
And on top of that
What’s good is bad and
What’s bad is good.
Wait, let’s rephrase.
We are so very fucked.
There’s a digital mudslide happening,
Bad faith communications
Pass as eloquence, and
Ideological drone strikes
Are being ordered as we speak.
Put another way:
Aspirations are artificial.
Compassion is a stun gun.
Theodicy is idiocy.
Heterodoxy is heresy and
Control freaks are saints.
So: how fucked are we?
Well, nobody likes the past but
They like the future even less.
Parody is impossible but
Realism no longer exists.
Plus, patricide is so last century and
Existence is just another drop down menu.
Yep, you are well and truly fucked
When blotting out the sun
Sounds like a plan

 

M. Bogen
November 2023